Chamber’s new welcome signs are eye catchers

December 8, 2011

Tama's Lincoln Highway bridge and Toledo's Butter Cow sculpture honoring Norma "Duffy" Lyon are featured on new signs being installed along U.S. Highway 30 east of Tama and west of Toledo. The signs are the result of a long-term project of the Tama-Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce.

The sign on property owned by Max and Helen McClure east of Tama was in place this week. It was expected the sign at the Ridge Riders Saddle Club property west of Toledo will be also be erected this week.

Both the McClures and the Ridge Riders have donated the locations for the signs.

Article Photos

BELOW- The new sign east of Tama greeting visitors to the communities will be illuminated and the lamps on the Lincoln Highway bridge portion will light up.News-Herald photos/John Speer

view of the new Tama-Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce sign located east of Tama along U.S. Highway 30.

Pam Wood, Toledo mayor and a Chamber sign committee member, said the committee spent many hours choosing the final design.

Each will be lit by three floodlights and the lamps atop of the Lincoln Highway bridge portion will also be illuminated.

The cities of Tama and Toledo have agreed to pay the ongoing electricity bills for the signs.

The signs cost $25,000 each and were paid for b y fund raising, money the Chamber of?Commerce received from hosting the RAGBRAI overnight event in 2008 and grants. Chamber dues were not used to pay for the signs Wood said.

They have been tested and are designed to withstand 120-mile-per-hour winds. They were built by Nesper Sign Advertising, Cedar Rapids.